A GROUP OF ACTORS IN THE TSAME FESTIVAL
From time to time, at every lamasery in Tibet, Mongolia, and Siberia, these festivals are held, the
chief
attraction
being
what
has
become
known among Europeans as "devil dances."
This is quite a misnomer, for the dances are really approximate
tothe
medieval
miracle
play.
The
participants are the monks of the lamasery, who, in costume and mask, represent gods, devils, mythological
kings,
and
other
characters
tradi
tional in the dance. In the center of the picture we see one of the gods with two unmasked attendants;
the
four
small
masked
figures
areimps,
and at each end are a countryman and a skeleton; two lesser gods complete the group. The venerable
figure
with
the
long,
white
beard
isone
of the sages who relates the story as the dance progresses.